Dental floss has long been recognized as an effective way to remove debris from between the teeth, and plaque from the interdental tooth surfaces between adjacent teeth. Dental plaque is a coating on the teeth of a complex bacterial nature which when not removed can lead to the formation of tooth decay, gingivitis, and further periodontal disease with the eventual deterioration of gum and bone tissue. Of course, a tooth brush is widely used for scrubbing teeth and removing plaque on tooth surfaces struck by the bristles. However, it is not very effective in removing plaque on the surfaces between adjacent teeth, and is often totally unable to dislodge material stuck between the teeth.
Flossing the teeth is commonly accomplished by wrapping a length of dental floss around the index finger of the left and right hands and inserting one or both of these fingers into the mouth in order to slip the dental floss between the teeth. This method has several disadvantages:
1. Inserting the fingers into the mouth can be unsanitary; PA0 2. Inserting fingers into the mouth can obstruct the view of the teeth area to be cleaned; PA0 3. Large fingers can make complete cleaning impossible; PA0 4. The molars are very hard to floss even with smaller fingers; PA0 5. Proper flossing action is often difficult to achieve; PA0 6. The floss tends to slip off of the fingers and tight wrapping of the floss on the fingers can lead to discomfort; PA0 7. Excessive length of dental floss is used to avoid the slipping problem. PA0 (a) is compact; PA0 (b) is easily manipulated by one hand; PA0 (c) provides for reciprocating action of the dental floss through the bifurcated flosser head for improved and quicker scrubbing of the teeth; PA0 (d) provides for controlled reciprocation of the dental floss when desired under the control of one or two fingers; PA0 (e) provides for quick and easy changing and for anchoring of the dental floss; PA0 (f) is economical to manufacture; PA0 (g) preferably provides for manual control of the floss tension during use; and PA0 (h) preferably provides an improved way of seeing precisely where the dental floss is to be inserted and operated between adjacent teeth.
Due to such difficulties, many dental floss holders have been designed. Most of them have a pair of parallel arms or legs at the distal end thereof and eyelets or grooves for guiding the floss between the legs. U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,294 issued Oct. 7, 1975 to D. C. Reed includes a pivotal device to tighten the floss, but no way of reciprocating the floss. That patent also requires a loop of floss that must be measured. U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,952 issued May 9, 1989 to P. Kos discloses a pair of spreadable flosser arms that maintain tension on special beaded floss. U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,330 issued to G. D. Johnson on Mar. 11, 1980 illustrates a pair of deflectable arms formed on a holder for an expandable floss cartridge. U.S. Pat. No. 3,828,804 issued to R. N. Ely on Aug. 13, 1974, provides for one-time tensioning of a loop of floss between the arms thereof, and has a very limited tensioning range.
Some dental flossing devices have been motorized, such as those represented by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,421,524 issued Jan. 14, 1969 to W. A. Waters and U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,957 issued Jul. 13, 1982 to R. H. Meibauer. These patents illustrate bifurcated heads that oscillate the dental floss fixed thereto through a small arc. They are basically attachments to an electrically powered tooth brush holder, and are not only excessively bulky and uneconomical, but also are awkward and uncomfortable because the arms continually oscillate at either side of the tooth being cleaned.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,521 issued May 6, 1986 to C. L. Urso discloses an extremely complex and bulky dental flosser with movable inner fork tines disposed between shielding outer fork tines. The inner fork tines move up and down while a spool drive mechanism causes the dental floss to be pulled in one direction between the spanning tines. By using a trigger, the operator can apparently start, stop, and control the speed of an electric motor and a brake associated with the dispensing spool. This flosser is awkward to use and consumes considerable dental floss.
Basically, such motorized flossers are overly complex and difficult to use, and lack the ability to truly simulate the back-and-forth movement of the index fingers. Thus, what is needed is a dental flossing apparatus that:
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.